Having offered the invitation he stood on one side, watching with interested friendliness while the rest of us made the necessary preparations. Olivia and I pushed the carpet back, drew the four chairs up to the small oblong table and cleared it of a litter of American illustrated magazines, ash-trays and other articles. Piers attended to the radiogram. When we finally sat down Howard and I were facing each other, and Piers and Olivia, with Piers in his usual place for access to the light and radiogram switches. I took Olivia’s left hand with my right, Howard shifted his chair awkwardly, there were two separate clicks, and in the swiftly plunging blackness I felt Piers’s hand on mine. His hands were peculiarly large for his small frame; in the enveloping darkness, with only his hand for witness, he was a giant.